Rent Increase Ontario 2023 Guidelines

Next year the rent increase guideline in Ontario will be capped at 2.5%.

This is the highest increase allowed in a decade – more than doubling from the previous 2022 guideline of 1.2%. The last time Ontario’s rent increase guideline reached 2.5 per cent was in 2013.

The rent increase guideline is the maximum amount a landlord can increase rent during the year for most tenants without the approval of the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Rent increases are not automatic or mandatory in Ontario. The rent may be increased only after at least 12 months have passed since the first day of the tenancy or the last rent increase.

Landlords must provide tenants at least 90 days written notice using the correct form (N1) stating the new rent and an explanation for the increase.

Landlords can apply for above-guideline rent increases to the Landlord and Tenant Board, but only under special circumstances, i.e., eligible capital work that has been finished and paid for.

Keep in mind this does not effect rental units occupied for the first time after Nov. 15, 2018, vacant residential units, community housing, long-term-care homes or commercial properties. There is no rent increase cap on these types of properties.